


Coming Home

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Disasters Turned Aside [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 05:19:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11177895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Ahsoka is back, and stories of the last two years are shared.





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, everyone that encouraged this one.

When the sedative proved to have pushed Ahsoka into the kind of sleep that only came with true exhaustion, Rex reconsidered his wish to get answers before contacting Anakin. He checked the time, and gave it until he knew the twins should be in bed, and tapped in his General's code.

"Yeah, Rex?" came the near instant reply, so at least the man wasn't enjoying his mate's company too closely at the moment.

"If you are free, you want to meet me in Kix's domain," Rex told him firmly, but carefully modulating the worry out of his words.

Anakin, who'd wondered what was going on with that odd request for Rex to come down to Dex's, and not been best pleased when he heard nothing, slid to his feet at the sound of Rex's voice. "Are you all right, _vod_?" 

The kids were both asleep, amazingly enough, so he should have time to go knock on Moté's door and ask her to step in. Whyever Rex was comming, he was going to them, now. 

"I… physically, yes, sir. Please, if you are able to come down, do so," Rex repeated, trying to use the 'if you are free' part to make the urgency less, but unwilling to say over comms why Anakin was needed. Rex had no idea what had put Ahsoka in such a state, and if others would follow.

Anakin did not like that answer, as 'physically' fine only meant emotionally wounded -- and for Rex to admit _that_ meant he needed to be at the garrison half an hour ago. "On my way, Rex. On my way. See you soon." 

"Copy that, sir." Rex switched it off, then looked over the visible injuries. Kix had only placed the blanket to Ahsoka's waist, aware of temperature issues. The lekku had been bandaged in the lighter scar-reducing wraps, but the throat was covered with a bacta bandage as was the injury on the back of her head. The left arm was in a gel-cast now, laid at a right angle with the elbow bent. The thin smock protecting Ahsoka's modesty (or, rather, the vod'e sense of such, as she had never been strong on a nudity taboo) was probably covering more, Rex realized, given the tray to one side with extra bandages and ointments for changing them later.

"Vod'ika, I don't know what you tangled with, but you had better come out of it alright," Rex said softly, settling on the right hand side of the bed once more for his vigil.

* * *

Rex did not stand up when Anakin entered, having broken that habit over the time it had taken to begin rebuilding after the Sith master was killed. Only on ship, around others, would they act on military protocol. 

"Sir," he said, as Anakin's eyes adapted to the dimmer light to take in who was lying so still on the bed.

Anakin had known something had changed, something was different, from the moment he was close enough to the garrison to get a good sense of Kix, of Rex. The whole of 501st country wasn't stirring, at least, which meant it was nothing too terrible, but they both thrummed with tension. Kix had waved him straight back to the private room, and stepping in, his eyes swept from Rex (who looked all right) to the bed. Bed where -- 

She looked like **hell**. Battered, thin, likely only so clean because of Kix's work, wrapped and bandaged, his padawan's looked awful -- and she was, for a moment, the most beautiful sight in his galaxy, because she was _home_. 

She was home, she was with them, she was really and truly _alive_. He hadn't felt her, but she was alive. He crossed to the side of the bed silently, fingers of his left hand finding undamaged skin to rest against. 

The contact explained why he hadn't felt her. She was shielded so tightly that even with his touch on her skin, it took a moment before he could truly sense her, feel her exhausted (and sedated) presence in their bond. But the bond was there, she was here, and with two excitable children, he'd had to learn more and better healing than he'd ever had before. 

"Okay... let's see what we can do here, huh, Snips?" he murmured, before remembering Rex had spoken to him. "Hey, Rex." 

Rex actually managed a half-smile for that single-mindedness in his general. He couldn't blame Anakin for it; his attention was still on the gir -- no, woman, that rested in the bed. 

Anakin could feel internal damage, in addition to the bandaged surface areas. It passed through his mind that Kix would normally have ordered a tank, but there was a long-standing note in Ahsoka's file that she fought what sedatives were safe for her when confined in small spaces like a bacta tank.

Her mind was beginning to react to his presence, though, sliding toward consciousness at having anyone else so close to her psyche. There was recent trauma there, the remnants of a battle of wills it felt like, only… the victim hadn't been Ahsoka? She'd been the aggressor, and taken backlash.

What was going on? How had she taking cutting, and crushing damage like this? As his healing moved further, he recognized electrical damage alongside the blunt force trauma -- he was quite familiar with the dark edges of it, unfortunately. 

That she kept stirring worried him, when he could feel in his own chest how exhausted she was. He washed soothing down the bond between them, offered her sleeping mind his love and his relief to ease her away from her unconscious guarding of herself, and settled, again, to the work of healing her. 

How she'd taken Force Lightning and the other damages, he didn't know, though he definitely cared quite a bit. That for later, though. That and everything else for later. Right now, his padawan needed his care, needed healing and to rest. He could give her most of that, especially with Kix already treating her. 

Rex just watched, waiting for Anakin to finish, and when the elder man drew back finally, he looked expectantly at Anakin. "Kix thought she'd heal in body."

"She will," Anakin agreed, sitting down on the bed, beside her hip, so that he could look across her at Rex and keep an eye on her, too. "She would even without me... but it'll be faster, with. She tried to come up out of it when she felt me, but she settled back down. 

"She's been in a fight with a Sith, from the Force Lightning damage, and... something else, too." 

"Then we were right, in guessing she left to fight behind lines," Rex said, jaw going tight. He'd had his hands full, keeping Fives on the track to mending at first, then taking on Echo's rehabilitation as well. The pair received most of his free energy, as they had also been so heavily involved in the rotations out against the Separatists. It was only luck that had them on planet this month.

Anakin nodded, one quick sharp violent gesture. "Yeah. We must have been. _Damn it_ , Snips, I was hoping I was wrong." 

He'd known he wasn't, though. Only being on the other side of the Separatist lines would have kept her from them, when everything exploded in the most public way possible (they'd done that on purpose, but still). That didn't matter right now, though. The only thing that mattered, in this moment, was that she was home now, and she wasn't so hurt that they couldn't have her right back on her feet shortly. 

"It's Ahsoka," was all Rex said to that, before taking a deep breath. "If she's going to keep sleeping, Anakin, you might as well go home to your wife and twins. I can keep vigil and comm when she's ready to talk to us.

"I prefer keeping her here, in case anything followed her back."

Anakin went still, looking at his padawan, then his first in command, shaking his head slightly. He did _not_ want to leave her, not when she'd just come home, not when she was wounded, might need him... but they only had a week and some back on Coruscant before the front would be calling again. And the twins were changing so fast, he hated being away from them when he could be there. 

"She needs to stay here," he agreed with _one_ part of what Rex had said. He would risk neither her, nor his wife and children, by trying to move her in this condition and with the chance of pursuit. And also, anything that even attempted to get to her would have to get through the outer guard _and_ the 501st itself -- and he was sure that _that_ was well beyond most pursuit. 

Then too, Obi-Wan was in 212th country with Cody, and would come at a dead run if he was needed here. 

"Go home. Take comfort in your little biters… that's why we're back this month anyway, since it was their birthday last week. Kiss your wife, get some sleep." Rex reached across Ahsoka's sleeping form to grip Anakin's wrist. "Kix or I will be in touch as soon as it looks like she's coming out of it."

"Why are you so practical?" Anakin groused at him, but he stood once that grip eased up, taking the time to look at his padawan one more time. "Little one, you better know you're home to stay," he said softly before he took his leave.

* * *

True to his word, Rex had commed for Anakin to return when Kix said Ahsoka's brainwaves were showing she was feeling pain, and starting to come out of the sedation. Rather than sedate her again, or give her pain meds that might fog her ability to report, Kix held off; Anakin's healing might be the better thing for both the cause of pain and the trauma surrounding events for her.

No one but the three of them knew she was present, and that was evident as Anakin got there, as the 501st was continuing with business as usual, instead of buzzing about their returned commander.

Ahsoka, for her part, knew she was not alone, and was just starting to open her eyes as Anakin walked in. She grimaced at the pain, then blinked and took in the two presences in the room, thankful the lights were very low.

"Try not to move too much, Ahsoka," Rex said softly. He slipped his hand near her free one, and she immediately latched onto his fingers, glad for the contact.

Anakin moved carefully, making certain that she was aware of it, and came to stand at her other side, his voice pitched low and gentle as he spoke. "Easy, Snips... easy, there." 

He laid one hand on her bicep, up above the bandaging, and let his attention and focus slide lightly down the bond between them, careful of the mental damage she'd taken.

She was wary, but there was hope within her, as well as a need for her family. The wariness all hinged on having been gone so long, over having left them, but it was slowly unraveling at finding herself so well-cared for.

"I feel better," she said softly. "Help me sit up?" She hated being flat, at being reminded of being vulnerable enough to need it. 

Rex rose to look for the bed controls, so he could get it angled better for her. "That's our Ahsoka. Already making demands," he teased her lightly, getting a twist up of one corner of her mouth.

"Sure is," Anakin agreed, waiting until Rex had the bed situated so that she was sitting up before he settled back down next to her hip, watching his padawan's face and restraining himself from trying to drag her into a hug that would only hurt her. He lifted his gloved hand, reaching to rest it along her cheek, just in front of her the curve of her lekku along her cheek. "Hi, little one." 

"Not so little now," she pointed out, but she pushed into that touch, while her fingers found Rex's hand again on her other side. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and Anakin felt her shifting in her mind, pushing toward the competent officer she had been turning into before she left. "At least I have good news for you.

"Count Dooku is dead."

Rex actually gasped. Dooku had gone so far behind enemy lines that none of their commandos could even verify his location, keeping the Separatist movement alive.

Anakin snorted and shook his head slightly, leaving his hand against her cheek since she'd been so willing to push into it -- and then she said that, and he stiffened through his shoulders and all the way down his spine. "That's not good news, Snips, that's _fantastic_ news," he told her. "Look at you, all understatement. That's -- "

Part of him -- part of him he wanted to kick the sense out of -- was trying to be jealous, almost angry, that someone else had finished that fight, that he was never going to have the chance to square off against the man that had betrayed his Finder and their entire lineage... but that was an idiot part of him and he stuffed it off into a corner to deal with later. Dooku was finally dead. Without him, the Sep alliance would have to finally crumble, wouldn't it? "How long ago?" he asked, curious. 

"My friend pulled us out of there two days before I met Rex," Ahsoka said softly, holding back the harsher part of her news. "If the news hasn't leaked out, then I was right, and that was Gunray's troops firing on her as she got us clear. He won't be able to hold onto the leadership if the others know Dooku's dead.

"But I know he is. Asajj made certain of it after she got the final blow in, and the less said about what a Dathomiri witch in full rage can do, the better."

"The witch?!" Rex blinked as Ahsoka cut him a hard glare, and he recalled that both Anakin and Kenobi had said the woman had interfered with things to actually protect Ahsoka to a degree during the manhunt for the former padawan. "Sorry; I knew we hadn't heard of her much in the same time, but I never thought you'd be working with her."

"...that does have to be _quite_ a story," Anakin said, no less amazed at that thought than Rex was. But war could make for strange allies, and the witch had helped her when he couldn't. Apparently had gotten her behind the Separatist lines, too. "One we can hear later, though, when you're stronger. And no. There hasn't been a whisper of that news. 

"No surprise about Gunray, the slime." 

"I need to report the death of a Jedi, though, Anakin," she said in a softer voice. "I'm not sure Asajj would have gotten through had he not sacrificed himself to draw Dooku's attack away from us. Master Vos gave us the opening, allowed me to defend her, and let her get in close. I couldn't help him, nor could Asajj, other than to ease the pain."

There was more, but she didn't need to detail the struggle to stay in the Light the Jedi had faced, as he worked with them against the man he had been sent to assassinate, the man that had managed to twist his head and lay compulsions on him.

Fighting Dooku's manipulations back in Vos's head had kept Ahsoka from taking the lead in that fight, even though all three had agreed she was their best fighter.

"Vos?" Anakin blinked, surprised. He'd honestly thought the man was already dead, given how long it had been since anyone had heard anything about or from him. Aayla hadn't been able to reach him in years, and neither had Obi-Wan. Master Tholme -- sometimes in residence here, but more often away on Bespin -- hadn't, either. Vos wasn't his favorite person by a long shot, but Aayla and Obi-Wan mattered enough to him for him to care, somewhat. "Damn. That's going to gut Aayla.

"I'll pass it along, though." 

He knew that wasn't all of the story, but he could hear that when Ahsoka was ready. It wasn't that important, or she'd have said something. 

"A Sith lord doesn't actually account for your injuries, not all of them," Rex said gently. 

Ahsoka snorted. "No, that would be the rancor he had twisted to his own use. Asajj and I managed to pull the poor boy around to accept our presence and potential freedom. We weren't counting on Dooku's death snapping things in his mind, sending him into a blind killing rage.

"She was injured, we were both trying to get Vos to hang on enough for us to help him, and the poor thing raged into the chamber we'd been fighting in. I had to protect them, but I misjudged the speed he'd have. Got slammed and clawed pretty badly before I managed to get on top of the fight."

"Poor thing," Anakin muttered acidically, looking at her injuries again... but he sympathized with the beast, too. He knew something not dissimilar could have happened to him, if he'd still had Palpatine's manipulations alive in his mind when the man died. "I am sorry about him, Ahsoka. Not his fault... but I can't regret that you're the one okay."

"Hate not saving beings I make promises to," she said, but she accepted that she lived, with none of the taint he had come to see in vod'e who carried survivor guilt.

"How likely is it you'd be at risk, now that you're back with us, Ahsoka?" Rex asked, needing to know what level the security needed to be at.

She shook her head. "My friend got me planetside with no pursuit, and she was going to take care of Asajj's transportation too," she answered that. "I should be firmly in the clear; Dooku was the only target we ever intended to get to."

"Good," Anakin said, entirely relieved. "Then Rex won't have to keep keeping you a secret from Torrent. Probably a good thing for his skin, that." He grinned over at Rex for a moment, hoping that would help reassure her some more. 

Ahsoka smiled a little more at that, then closed her eyes. "Is it true?" she asked when she opened them. "You found the Sith on this side?"

Rex shifted at that, his weight settled so that he could reach out to Anakin if he needed it.

Anakin swallowed, hard, dipping his shoulder at Rex to invite the hand he could feel him wanting to extend -- it was easier, even almost two years later, to have some support when he had to think about that betrayal. "Yeah," he said, once Rex's hand was solidly around his shoulder, "we found him, Snips." 

"It was hard, to find out information about this side of things, once we went deep into the Separatist systems." She shuddered a little, then moved enough to get her good hand free and on Anakin. "I'm sorry."

Rex took that to mean she knew just who it had been, then, and was glad his General wasn't going to have to say it. "With both gone, maybe we can finally get it wrapped up," he said gruffly.

Anakin leaned into both hands on him, and sighed, pushing away the tension, the ache of the betrayal and the fury both with the exhalation. Or at least, trying. That still wasn't easy for him, but Rex's solid support and Ahsoka's gentle sympathy and regret made it a little easier. "...thanks, Snips. It -- was pretty awful." 

That was an understatement if there ever was one. He nodded at Rex's words, trying to focus on that positive, too. "Better chance than we had, that's for sure... unless Dooku had more trainees in the works, but even then. They won't have his hold on the Separatists." 

"If he had an apprentice other than Vos, I do not know of them," Ahsoka said, which made Rex grimace. His Commander, barely more than a cadet herself, had been behind enemy lines with two Dark Force users… and still made it home to them.

Anakin mouthed 'Other than Vos', more than a little surprised at that phrasing, and he replayed what Ahsoka had said earlier, about how the fight had gone, how they'd won it... and he shut his eyes for a moment. He hadn't liked Vos -- at first, jealous of the man's history with his Master, and later, enraged over his treatment of the _vod'e_ \-- but the kind of twisting and manipulation the Sith apparently did like they breathed wasn't something he'd wish on anyone. 

"That's a relief. I'm not going to count it impossible, but... it's something." 

"What now, Anakin? I'm no closer to knowing what to do with my life than I was two years ago, and… my debt to Asajj is paid and then some."

Rex closed his eyes; how many brothers were starting to ask that question now, as the fight turned more to skirmishes and supply protection? For a _jetii_ who had walked away from the Order, how much worse could it be? They lived knowing their purpose as clearly as any vod.

Anakin tightened his fingers on her arm -- careful, but the thought of her disappearing again was enough to set panic chewing at his nerves -- and pressed his other hand against the line of her cheek. He couldn't lose her again. Not when she'd come home. 

"Well, vod'ika, I'm pretty certain you can have citizenship with us," Rex said slowly. "And I'm pretty certain the Senator's ladies are going to be hard-pressed to keep up with the pair of biters she's got, if you want to lend us a hand with them," he added, slow smile curving up at the thought of his nephew and niece.

Ahsoka's eyes flew wide, and her gaze shot to Anakin's face instantly. "Anakin?!"

"Dammit, Rex! I was getting there!" Anakin said, only vaguely meaning the snap -- he'd been starting to tie himself in knots, and Rex had known it, cut straight through it before he could. And that was one of the reasons he still needed Rex so badly, if he was honest with himself. 

"He's right though, Snips. They're starting to use telekinesis, and that's not easy for the ladies to deal with. And I _know_ you're good with kids -- I promise, mine don't normally smell like Stinky, though _sometimes_..." 

Ahsoka laughed softly, a hoarseness to it even with the healing for her throat. "I don't think I can do childcare full-time, Anakin. But I would like to meet your children, and I can teach them some, if you want. I was pretty good with the little ones in the creche."

"I'm sure our side of the Order could use that experience, Ahsoka," Rex said. "We've got a few teachers among our _jetiise_ , but more, as the call for using 'sabers dies down, could only be a good thing. If we're going to protect all the late-catches I've heard happened, and got hurt by rejection or indoctrination," he added, squeezing Anakin's shoulder.

"Our side?" Ahsoka questioned, confused. "What… what happened?"

Anakin snorted, relaxing his hands and letting his left pet along her arm for a moment, his right finally dropping away from her cheek only to fold it back over Rex's on his shoulder. "Of course you're meeting your niece and nephew, Snips; don't be ridiculous. And there'd be a riot if you tried it full-time, all of her ladies and part of the _vod'e_ insist on helping us... but I can't help thinking it'd be good for you, to do something that's _not_ fighting for a while. 

"They're amazing, for that." How did he explain, to someone that hadn't been there, how things had exploded with the Council, with the entire hierarchy of the Order, in the aftermath of Sidious' exposure? (Especially when it was Ahsoka, whose treatment at the Council's hands had been such a breaking point for some of them?) "As to what happened..." 

"We told the Council to go kriff themselves if they even thought about taking our _jetiise_ away from us," Rex said evenly. "Kix flat out told them they were an abusive, maladapted insular society with no potential for anything but stagnation and corruption."

Ahsoka had to stare at Rex, then Anakin, and slowly flex her lekku in absolute shock at that.

"Yeah... that's sort of what my reaction was," Anakin agreed, wry-voiced. His had been a little more hysterical, but his had been in the middle of it, too, and with his heart and mind still a mess from her, from Tup and Fives, from the Chancellor... all of it. . "But after the revelation about -- oh, _kriff_. You don't know." 

"Know what?" Something in his tone set her on edge, that full-blown wariness coming back. Rex was reminded that she had been gone too long, cut off from those that had loved her and that she had poured her own heart into.

"Shh," Anakin told her swiftly, his voice soft and soothing despite the speed, trying to ease her down from that instant high-alert. "Shh, Snips, it's okay now. It's okay, we stopped it in time. Easy, easy..." 

Not for everyone, no, they'd lost Tup to it before they had any idea... but Fives and all the other _vod'e_ , they'd gotten to in time. For once in their lives, they'd been in time to stop something terrible. He watched her for a moment, waiting, hand resting on her shoulder, until some of the worst of that wary readiness eased. "Okay. After the old Council's stupidity with you... something happened, and one of the _vod'e_ killed a Jedi -- couldn't stop himself from it. That tipped Fives off to that something was really wrong, and he discovered that the Sith had karking booby-trapped our brothers. 

"That's what led us to Sidious, actually. He tried to make me hunt Fives." 

Ahsoka's teeth had not gotten any less sharp or feral-looking in certain expressions, Rex saw as she bared them fully with a low growl. He'd been half-wanting to shift her on the bed enough to sit there and get his arm around her, and telling himself in his head he was being completely ridiculous. Now, he was remembering just why and how she had captured the hearts of their men so fully, being as fierce and capable as she was while still having a kind nature.

He really needed to stop thinking about it.

"Fives is…."

"He's fine, Ahsoka," Rex said. "Took a nasty blaster shot that took a long while to heal properly, and there's other things that happened that have taxed him some, but he's fine." He didn't know if telling about Echo, just yet, would be helpful or not. Ahsoka had thrown herself into that mission against orders.

His padawan was so fierce, and so perfect in it. Anakin hummed softly, quiet and gentle, and nodded. "He's okay, Snips. Rex managed to save him -- saved everybody, doing it. Between us, we managed to figure out how to deactivate the," he had to stop himself from spouting off his usual tirade of profanity on the topic, "thing en masse. Except for the Guard, we sort of saved that for when we confronted Sidious so he wouldn't have any warning. 

"But with that revelation, the _vod'e_ sort of... lost their collective temper entirely and had some things to say." 

"Good." Ahsoka shifted in the bed, leaning forward so she could actually get her arm around Rex… who froze completely for a half-second before returning the hug. "I've been worried about you," she said softly.

"Me?!" Rex managed to keep his voice quiet, having noted the increased montral height and knowing it meant her hearing was even better and more sensitive. "I didn't go behind enemy lines to hunt the chief Separatist!"

Ahsoka snorted. "I didn't set out to do it," she said as she slipped back against the bed. "I was content to work with her until she decided I had made up for breaking my promises to her. Then we went to Dathomir… and she tried to keep me from going there, then tried to dissuade me from the hunt.

"Only… I couldn't. I couldn't let her lose every single gain she had made in walking out of the Dark by being twisted up in vengeance. Again, though I didn't know that at first."

Anakin made a half-curious noise. He didn't care about the witch -- except in that she'd helped Ahsoka, and apparently now killed Dooku -- but it obviously mattered to Ahsoka, so. He was interested, if she wanted to talk about it. And he supposed that if anyone else was going to kill Dooku, Ventress probably had the most right of anyone in the galaxy, so there was something fitting about that, too. "You had us worried, Snips," he told her. "But you're home now." 

"Home."

Ahsoka closed her eyes, and let herself open the awareness more, feeling all of Rex's concern and welcome. She touched Anakin's deep love for her and gave it back in full. She had meant it when she walked away; it had never been about him when she made her choice, yet it was because she would have lost him regardless that she had left.

"Then I better concentrate on getting well enough to be out of this bed, so I can learn my new place in our lives," she said, making the decision with all of her being to stay, and find herself among family.

Anakin took a slow breath as his Snips' love poured into him, latching on to that as she opened up, and he held on for long moments before he could let the bond recede. 

"I've gotten better at this whole healing thing, let me see what I can do to help with that," he told her, focusing, before he leaned in and brushed a kiss over her forehead. " _Aliit_ ," he told her, because the Mando'a was the best explanation for what they were he'd heard yet. 

" _Aliit_ ," she agreed, and Rex breathed the word as well.

They were, at last, whole in their family.

**Author's Note:**

> mandoa.org provides all the Mando in our stories. 
> 
> Vod / vod'e = sibling/siblings  
> aliit = clan  
> vod'ika = little sibling (in reference to Ahsoka, it is always meant to be little sister, as the 501st is proud of their ONLY sister)  
> jetii / jetiise = Jedi (singular/plural) {in our fics, the clones do make a distinction between Jedi and jetii as the latter is one that they trust and respect COMPLETELY}


End file.
